A heat exchanger is a device which is configured in operation to transfer heat between a solid object and a fluid, or between two or more fluids. Such fluids, for example, may include heated air from an engine exhaust or other heat source or a heated liquid. In operation in a heat exchanger component, the fluids are conventionally separated by a solid wall to prevent mixing, but allow the transfer of heat between the two liquids.
The most widely used heat exchanger is a single-phase heat exchanger. In operation of such single-phase heat exchangers, both the heated fluid and a cooler fluid flowing through the heat exchanger remain in their initial gaseous or liquid states. In the conventional operation of such single-phase heat exchangers, conventionally two fluids flow through separated flow paths at different temperatures and are separated by a conducting medium such as metal ceramic or in some cases polymeric materials. A widely employed single phase heat exchanger design provides such separated flowpaths for a first fluid flowing through the interior passage of one or a plurality of metal tubes, and for the second fluid flowing around the exterior surfaces of those tubes. On either side of the tube, heat from one fluid is transferred to the other by convection. This heat from the hotter fluid to the lower temperature fluid is transferred through the tube wall by conduction.
Conventional single-phase heat exchangers conventionally employ a shell which surrounds one or a plurality of tubes situated within the shell. At the ends of the heat exchanger, the fluid flowing into and out of the tube is separated from the second fluid located between the interior wall of the shell and the tube by a separating sheet of conductive material forming the surrounded tube.
However, this conventional design of a shell having the second fluid therein which surrounds the exterior of the tube positioned within the shell wall limits the area of the contact surfaces to communicate heat between the two fluids and to the exterior of the material forming the tube.
The device herein provides a heat exchanger which includes not one but two heat transfer surfaces for heat transfer by convection, from the hotter fluid to the cooler fluid. Additionally, the device herein includes a first fluid flow director which imparts a first cyclonic flow as well as a second flow director which intersects with the incoming first cyclonic fluid flow once it has communicated around a circular sidewall surface as the fluid flows around a chamber surrounded by a wall surface of a chamber holding a second fluid. This second fluid flow director induces a second cyclonic fluid flow to the entering first fluid causing an enhanced circular flow for a longer contact time around an exterior and around an interior surface of the tube surrounding the second fluid.
Thus heat is transferred from the first fluid to the second fluid through both of an interior wall running through an axial chamber after the fluid has flowed in first cyclonic flow between an exterior wall spaced from and surrounding an interior wall. Such a configuration significantly increases the heat transfer area between the two fluids and the two cyclonic fluid flows induced around both the exterior wall and the interior wall surfaces during fluid flow therethrough of the heated fluid, and significantly enhances the heat exchange from fluid contact therewith and thereby the transfer of heat to the fluid being heated in the interior tank.
The forgoing examples of related art and limitations related therewith in the area of heat exchangers, are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the heat exchanger device and method described and claimed herein. Various limitations of the related art are already known or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.